May I ask why the word "projected" is routinely omitted from most discussions of our state budget "surplus"? Who remembers how much of each projected surplus evaporates before it ever enters the state coffers? Who keeps in mind the billions in state debt, the billions we owe the federal government for unemployment funding and other extensions and the money we have removed from educational spending when we should have been adding to that budget?

Why is it that the DFL routinely tries to spend any expected surplus on paying down our debts to the people, the children of Minnesota, and expanding government services to the people, while the Republicans routinely try to spend any expected surplus on big business and tax cuts, reducing government services available to the majority of Minnesotans? Any answer would be greatly appreciated.

Glenn Livezey, Minnetonka

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The Republicans want to issue long-term tax cuts; the governor wants to send refund checks ("Minn. projects $9.3B surplus," front page, March 1). Can we assume, then, that all our roads and bridges are in good shape, our schools are all retrofitted for healthy ventilation and the myriad projects that await addressing are taken care of? Seems like that more than $9 billion could go a long way to improving our state. Isn't that what taxes are supposed to do?

Kenneth A. Harris, Hugo

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From multiple articles documenting teacher burnout and the staffing crisis at our schools and hospitals to consistent coverage of broken housing and child care markets that are gumming up our labor supply, it seems honest journalism can't help but reveal the widespread ramifications of underfunding our basic common needs. Unfortunately, far too many voices around the Capitol are leaping to hand the money back to businesses and wealthier Minnesotans through wasteful and irresponsible tax cuts.

Tax cuts will not resolve the pressing challenges we face today; businesses won't fund transit, child care or nursing homes, and even taxpayers that get some cash back will lose out in the long-run. Whether it's underresourced schools, higher prices for early childhood and college education or a smaller workforce from which to grow a business, putting tax cuts before our collective needs will suppress economic growth and will make us all worse off. Lawmakers would be fools to let this opportunity pass us by.

Eric Harris Bernstein, Minneapolis

The writer is policy director, We Make MN.

What caused Russian President Vladimir Putin's mistake? ("New, more treacherous reality for the Kremlin, Feb. 27.)

Self-isolation happens all the time, everywhere and at different levels leading to terrible decisions and worse. Think cancel culture, Big Tech censorship, spiking uncomfortable stories, antifa intimidation, firing people over vaccine views, freezing trucker bank accounts, etc.

Let's pop our bubbles and return to engaging our opponents in debate with our differing sources and facts — rather than trying to destroy, censor and intimidate them. We might actually learn to respect their viewpoint and values. Otherwise we are no better than Putin and creating our own self-made bubble that will lead us to terrible mistakes.

Martin R. Wellens, Shorewood

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A Feb. 24 letter writer insisted that the U.S. must now "unleash the American energy sector into full production ... withdraw decisions that stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline and the recovery and exploration on federal land ... and show the world its fossil-fuel industry is back into full production."

The most assured way to achieve balance between energy supply and demand is to realign the global distribution and delivery system to compensate for Russia's malign activities and to increasingly focus on sustainable alternative sources of energy.

Dave Pederson, Excelsior

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I am an environmentalist, I have supported efforts to minimize oil and natural gas production. I am also a realist. Putin has brutally invaded the sovereign nation of Ukraine in complete disregard for its people, who only wish to exist as a free people in their own country. I believe it is now a moral imperative for our country to increase our oil and natural gas production immediately. This will enable us to export these products to those countries now dependent on Russian exports and reduce Russia's ability to fund this unjust war against the people of Ukraine.

Donald Leaon, St. Cloud

In 2014, Russia simply walked into Crimea and took over. Little outrage was expressed by Western leaders over that flagrant act. The Russians started an insurrection in the Eastern part of Ukraine on the pretext that they were protecting Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

Invasions of the sort that Russia is completing now don't happen at the snap of a finger. They take months of planning and the placement of huge numbers of troops and equipment in staging areas. All of that was visible to our intelligence-gathering organizations. Russia had drastically reduced its U.S. dollar reserves during 2021 thereby providing some insulation from U.S. sanctions. Those actions were surely apparent to people in U.S. military intelligence and the ranks of American financiers.

Hoping something isn't going to happen is not an effective form of deterrence. The groundwork for this invasion had been in process for a year. When Russia seized Crimea in 2014, we sent the Ukrainian army blankets and other nonlethal supplies. Other than that, nada! When the Biden administration shut down the Keystone XL pipeline on his first day, Putin must have been chuckling. When we converted what should have been an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan into a sniveling debacle, Putin must have been jumping up and down. When the Europeans were enthusiastically cooperating with Russia on the completion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to ship gas from Russia to Western Europe, Putin certainly could not believe his good luck.

Are we stupid or just congenitally unable to use critical thinking to see how the future is being shaped? Former President Donald Trump was right when he called Putin's plans brilliant thinking. Trump was right again when he said: "I mean, he's taking over an entire country for two dollars' worth of sanctions." Those words were not used in praise of Putin but as a sarcastic referral to President Joe Biden and other Western leaders as being constantly a day late and a dollar short.

The only sensible statement that I've heard from an American leader is from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell: "Don't hold any back. Every single available tough sanction should be employed, and should be employed now." Let's roll!